Angie's Sweet Natured Treats

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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

This week I'm delighted to be co-hosting It's a Keeper Thursday with Christina from It's a Keeper! Check out Christina's blog, which is a great resource for product and cookbook reviews, as well as many tasty recipes.

Thank you to Christina for hosting this event that allows bloggers to share their favorite recipes and creative craft projects. We can't wait to see what you have to offer this week!
Here are a few guidelines:

Well, hello there! Long time, no blog. Sorry about that. I hate to make excuses, but life's gotten a little busy as of late. I'll try to do better, I promise.

As you've probably noticed, I like to bake. A lot. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to convince David that we can, in fact, subsist on cheesecake and cookies (but wouldn't that be awesome). Since we do have to actually eat real food sometimes, I am forced to cook. Yes, forced. You see, I love to bake, but cooking always seems like a chore. Weird, right? Anyway, I decided that I would start sharing some of the savory things that come out of my kitchen, alongside the barrage of sweets that you're accustomed to. I can't promise anything too earth shattering, since I am a far more creative baker than I am cook, but here goes.

If you live in the south, chances are you have at least heard of and probably eaten at Zaxby's. For those not in the know, Zaxby's is a regional fast food joint that specializes in chicken fingers. While I fancy myself a foodie, I must admit that the Kickin' Chicken Sandwich from Zaxby's is one of my weaknesses. It consists of three chicken fingers (deep fried, of course), hot wing sauce, ranch dressing (full-fat, naturally), all piled on top of thick-cut slices of buttery Texas toast. Sounds pretty tasty, right? Unfortunately, this little gastronomic delight is not exactly figure friendly, weighing in at around 700 calories and 40 grams of fat.

So, what's a girl to do? Recipe makeover, of course. My version of the sandwich includes chicken tenders that are breaded in panko breadcrumbs and then baked, not fried. Instead of ranch dressing, I made a reduced-fat blue cheese dressing with a Greek yogurt base. I then grilled up a couple of lightly-buttered slices of thin sliced Italian bread. To top it off, I used my favorite wing sauce, Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce. The verdict? David and I both thought these were better than Zaxby's for a couple of reasons: they were far less greasy, and we both preferred the blue cheese dressing that I made to the ranch that Zaxby's serves. Plus, mine weighs in at around 375 calories and 12 grams of fat, which is much more figure friendly than the original.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine flour, spices, and salt together in a shallow dish. Place egg in a separate shallow dish. Place panko in a third shallow dish.
3. One at a time, dredge chicken pieces through the flour, then dip in egg, and finally dredge in panko. Place strips on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Lightly spray the tops of chicken tenders with cooking spray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 15 minutes, turning once half-way through cooking.
5. Toss cooked chicken with wing sauce to evenly coat.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Angela from Spinach Tiger asked if I would be interested in participating in Cupcake Palooza. At the time I had never heard of the event, but since it obviously involved cupcakes, I was intrigued. Who doesn't love cupcakes, right? The event invited professional cupcakers, as well as home bakers, to donate ten to twenty dozen cupcakes. Guests could purchase a $15 ticket, which entitled them to ten cupcakes of their choosing. A little more investigation revealed that the event would benefit Books from Birth of Middle Tennessee, an organization that is focused on increasing literacy and school readiness, which is an important and worthwhile cause.

Angela, Grishma from Zaika Zabardast, and I decided to share a table to lighten our individual baking loads. We each wanted to make different flavored cupcakes, but we wanted to stick to a theme. Since it's springtime and Easter is just around the corner, that seemed like an appropriate jumping off point. Angela made Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. Grishma brought Pina Colada Cupcakes filled with pineapple curd. I shared Tropical Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

As I mentioned in my "Blue Ribbon" Peppermint Patty Brownie post, I won several ribbons at the Tennessee State Fair last year. One of them was in the "Vegetable Cake" category for my Tropical Carrot Cake with White Cream Cheese Frosting. Prior to Cupcake Palooza I had only ever made this recipe as a layer-cake, never cupcakes. I was a little concerned that the recipe may not translate as well in cupcake form, but fortunately they turned out great! As an additional challenge, I made a small batch of eggless cupcakes to share with Grishma and her husband, as they are lacto-vegetarians. For my first foray into eggless cake baking, I would say they were a smashing success. In fact, I could barely tell a difference between the two.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Beat oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
3. With mixer on low, gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until just incorporated. Stir in carrots, coconut, pineapple, and ginger.
4. Fill liner 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes for mini cupcakes (longer for regular cupcakes), or until they test done using a toothpick.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Beat oil, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla extract together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
3. With mixer on low, gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until just incorporated. Stir in carrots, coconut, pineapple, and ginger.
4. Fill liner 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes for mini cupcakes (longer for regular cupcakes), or until they test done using a toothpick.

1. Melt white chocolate together with heavy cream in either a double boiler or in the microwave in 15 second increments. Set aside to cool.
2. Beat together cream cheese and butter until thoroughly combined. Beat in melted white chocolate. Add powdered sugar in batches, beating with each addition. If a stiffer frosting is desired, add additional powdered sugar.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

People tend to have very strong opinions about which Girl Scout cookie variety is the best. I've heard that Thin Mints are the best selling variety year after year. I can certainly see why. It's chocolate. It's peppermint. It's delicious. It's very refreshing. Kudos to those that get the Seinfeld Junior Mint reference; those that don't, well thanks for making me feel old. Anyway, Thin Mints are definitely one of my favorites, but they don't hold the top spot on my list. No, that spot is reserved for Samoas (or Caramel Delites, depending on your geographic location).

Samoas represent everything that is good in the world: chocolate, caramel, and toasted coconut all nestled together on a shortbread cookie. I'm pretty sure I could easily polish off an entire box (or maybe three) in one sitting. This year I exercised a little self-restraint and didn't immediately inhale the two boxes I ordered from a friend's daughter. Instead, I used about half of a box to make these cheesecake bites. Because, apparently, I like to turn things into cheesecake (exhibits A, B, C, D, and E). I'm actually kind of obsessed with creating new cheesecake flavors, or at least tweaking old ones. I hope you don't mind.

When I was initially struck with the idea of making Samoas cheesecake bites, I knew I didn't want to just make a plain cheesecake with some Samoas thrown in and call it a day. No way. I wanted to make mini cheesecakes that actually looked like Samoas. I started by making a shortbread cookie crumb crust, then I topped that with a Samoas laced cheesecake filling. Once the filling was baked and cooled, I spread a mixture of caramel and toasted coconut on top, then I dipped the bases in melted dark chocolate, and finally drizzled melted chocolate over the top. The results absolutely exceeded my wildest expectations. These were amazing. I would venture to say these are my favorite cheesecake creation ever (so far, at least). Coming from me, that is saying a lot. Seriously, if you still have a box of Samoas at your house, make these. You can thank me later.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the wells of a mini-cheesecake pan with non-stick spray.
2. Toss together cookie crumbs and sugar. Stir in melted butter. Press approximately one tablespoon of crumbs into nine of the wells in the cheesecake pan.
3. Bake crust for approximately 10 minutes, or just until it begins to brown.
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

1. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees. Beat cream cheese and sugar together on medium until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl and beater blades periodically.
2. Lower mixer speed to low and mix egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Continue to mix until smooth. (Helpful hint: if your cheesecake batter is lumpy, your ingredients were probably too cold. To remedy this, I use my immersion blender to smooth out the batter).
3. Stir in the chopped cookies. Pour batter over crust, filling to within a 1/2 inch of the top of each well. Bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until just set. Turn oven off and slightly crack door. Allow cheesecakes to cool in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

1. Spread coconut over a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees, stirring every 5 minutes, until toasted. Keep a very close watch when the coconut begins to brown, as it can go from nicely toasted to burned very quickly.
2. Melt together caramels, milk, and salt either over a double boiler or in the microwave on high for 3-4 minutes. Stir periodically while heating. (I used some leftover homemade salted caramel sauce that I had in the fridge in place of the caramels and milk.) Once the mixture is smooth, stir in toasted coconut.
3. Spread about 2 teaspoons of the coconut-caramel topping over each cheesecake, and allow to set for a few minutes.
4. In the meantime, melt chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave on medium heat, stirring after each interval. Carefully dip the bottom of each cheesecake into the chocolate and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
5. Once all cheesecake bottoms have been dipped, transfer remaining chocolate to a zip-lock bag with a very small corner snipped off. Drizzle chocolate over coconut-caramel topping. Place cookies in the refrigerator until chocolate covered bottoms have set. Enjoy.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, David and I had the pleasure of joining a group of Nashville food bloggers for a coffee cupping event at Roast, Inc., a locally owned coffee roaster that hand selects their coffee from up to sixteen different countries. The owners of Roast, Inc., Brad and Lesa Wood, are slightly obsessed with their coffee. They can tell you where it was grown, who grew it, how and where it was processed, and precisely when it was brought into the US.

In addition to offering extraordinary coffee for purchase by the pound, Roast, Inc.'s coffeehouse, located at 4825 Trousdale Drive, prides itself as being Nashville's only single-cup brewer. Prior to this event I was really only aware of two single cup brewing methods: French press and Keurig. Turns out, there are many others, including:

Each method yields a cup of coffee with subtle yet distinct characteristics, from the clean and crisp product of the Yama Siphon Pot to the full-bodied, full-flavored product of the Clever Coffee Dripper. My favorite methods were the siphon pot, mainly because I'm kind of a science nerd, and it's super cool, and the Clever because of its simplicity and ease of use.

Roast, Inc. also offers all of the typical espresso based drinks made on a hand-rebuilt Rancilio Millennium Two Group Machine.

I'm sure it was some combination of the exceptional quality of the coffee, Lesa's expertise in roasting and brewing, and the use of milk from Hatcher's Family Dairy, but the cappuccino I had at Roast, Inc. was hands down the best I have ever had.

I almost always add some sort of sweetener when I have a cappuccino or latte, but this was perfect all on its own: wonderfully bold with no hints of bitter or burnt flavors.

Another important note: Roast, Inc. uses only natural sweeteners and flavorings in their specialty coffee drinks, including maple syrup and agave nectar. They even make a Nutella latte with nothing but espresso, steamed milk, and Nutella. It was pretty amazing.

Of course this wouldn't have been a proper food blogger meetup without food. We had quite a spread, including a couple of types of quiche, scones, muffins, doughnuts, and my contribution, sausage and biscuits, with sausage from Peaceful Pastures and biscuits made with buttermilk from Hatcher's Family Dairy (and lard from Peaceful Pastures). I'll be sharing my recipe for biscuits in an upcoming post.

I also had the opportunity to get to know a couple of my fellow Nashville food bloggers a little better, particularly Angela from Spinach Tiger (pictured below) and Lisa from Wine with Lisa. During the event we discovered that we all live in the same area, and that Angela and I actually live in the same neighborhood. It was great to meet you ladies, and I look forward to seeing you again soon!

For anyone in Nashville looking for exceptional coffee by the pound, I highly recommend stopping by Roast, Inc. In addition to coffee by the pound and fresh brewed coffee and espresso, they also carry a full line of single-cup brewing gadgets for your home collection, including Chemex, Clever, Aeropress, and siphon pots. If you're a novice coffee brewer like me, be sure to ask for advice on which methods work best for which coffees. They will be more than happy to help you recreate the perfect cup of coffee at home. Thanks again to Brad, Lesa, and Tim for coming in on their day off to share the passion for great coffee with our group!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

If you've been reading food blogs for more than a year or so, you've probably seen some iteration of a cupcake incorporating Irish stout, Irish cream, and Irish whiskey (commonly known as the Irish Car Bomb Cupcake, after the popular cocktail). They were all the rage a few years ago when introduced by Smitten Kitchen. I've made them a couple of times, and they really are quite tasty. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with chocolate cake and Irish cream frosting, right?

This year I thought I would try out a new adults-only treat for St. Patty's Day, using the same flavor components of Smitten Kitchen's cupcakes. Since cheesecake is the medium I feel most comfortable working with, that seemed like a good place to start. After a bit of deliberation, I settled on a chocolate stout brownie topped with Irish cream cheesecake and finished off with a dark chocolate Irish whiskey glaze.

These turned out great. You can definitely detect the alcohol in the cheesecake and whiskey glaze, so they aren't a great choice for children or those that don't like the taste of alcohol. For everyone else, these are pretty amazing. They're perfect for St. Patty's Day. Or any day, really.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray amini cheesecake panwith non-stick spray. Alternatively, you can line a mini muffin tin with papers.2. Melt chocolate and butter together in either a double boiler or in 30 second intervals in the microwave on medium heat, stirring after each interval. Continue to stir until completely melted.3. Allow chocolate to cool slightly, then whisk in brown sugar until very smooth. Add egg and beat until very smooth. Once eggs are incorporated, stir in Irish Stout.4. Sift together flour and cocoa powder, then fold dry ingredient into chocolate mixture until incorporated without over mixing.5. Fill each well 1/3 full with brownie batter. Bake in the pre-heated oven until just set, approximately 12-15 minutes.6. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Cut cream cheese into 1-inch chunks and beat at low speed in the bowl of a stand mixer until very smooth, approximately 1-2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl and beater blade.

2. With your mixer still on low, add sugar to cream cheese. Beat at low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down beater blade and bowl. Add Irish cream and beat until well incorporated.

4. With mixer on low, add eggs. After eggs have been added, thoroughly scrape down sides of bowl and beater blade, and mix on low for 1 minute.

5. Pour batter over crust, filling to within a 1/2 inch of the top of each well. Bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Irish Whiskey Chocolate Glaze

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

Melt chocolate and heavy cream together in either a double boiler or in 30 second intervals in the microwave on medium heat, stirring after each interval. Once chocolate is melted, whisk in Irish whiskey. Allow glaze to cool and thicken slightly before drizzling over cheesecakes.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

I was never overly crazy about pancakes when I was growing up. I would eat them on occasion, but they certainly weren't at the top of my list of favorite breakfast foods. I attribute that mainly to growing up in a house that used "pancake" syrup. I was not a fan of "pancake" syrup at all, so I usually ate pancakes and waffles topped with some sort of jam or jelly.

My change in opinion came on the day that I discovered real maple syrup. I suddenly understood what all the fuss over pancakes was about. I was still a boxed mix kind of girl until one day a few years ago I was craving pancakes, and much to my dismay I discovered I was all out of pancake mix. Fortunately I was armed with a well stocked pantry and the power of the internet. One quick Google search later, and we were in business.

That first recipe that I tried was for basic buttermilk pancakes. They were very tasty, but quite lacking in the nutrition department. While you may not guess it from looking at the desserts that I typically post, I actually try to make healthy choices 90% of the time. At first, I tried making pancakes with all regular whole wheat flour. I liked the results just fine, but David gave them a big thumbs down.

Enter white whole wheat flour: all the nutritional benefits of whole wheat flour with a lighter color and texture. It's truly the best of both worlds. Then I subbed the buttermilk for half plain yogurt-half milk, since I'm more likely to have those ingredients on hand. For this batch, I added the juice and zest of a lemon and fresh blueberries. I thought they turned out great, especially with the addition of a healthy dose of maple syrup. David wholeheartedly agreed. So, if you're looking for a pancake recipe that's nutritionally sound and will please even the picky eaters in your house, try these out.

1. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. I like to use a glass measuring cup with a spout for ease of pouring.
2. Mix yogurt and milk together in a medium bowl until fairly smooth. Add egg, vanilla extract, melted butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat until well combined.
3. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Do not over mix or pancakes may be tough. Batter will likely look a little lumpy. Set mixture aside to rest for 15 minutes.
4. Spray a griddle or frying pan with non-stick spray or rub with oil and heat on medium high. When a drop of water sizzles on the surface of the pan, it is hot enough.
5. Pour rounds of batter of desired size onto the heated griddle. Immediately drop blueberries evenly over the surface of the pancakes. Allow pancakes to cook until golden brown on both sides, flipping only once. Spray or re-oil griddle after cooking each batch. Top as desired. Any leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days or can be frozen for up to a month.